Wednesday, March 30, 2005
kef1000blog
kef1000blog
Dear fellow elders,
Too often we get so caught up in what the Bible says that we fail to ascertain what it means. I think this is what happens when many of us consider the role of women in the church. Just as we are mystified and amazed at the way that the majority of the Jews of Jesus' day failed to recognize Him as the Messiah, so too, years from now, will others be to our blindness concerning women.
As elders we are called to guide just one congregation in one place at one time. We must make Scripture relevant to the society we want to impact without regard for what others are doing elsewhere. It is not our job to judge women, but we are to interpret God's Word. In doing so, tradition and past practice should not be allowed to impede our efforts to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
Our view of society must be subject to our Scriptural outlook. We must not allow our prejudices and other cultural baggage to blind us to the truth: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."(Gal. 3:28) And we must act accordingly.
Following the example of Christ, we must bring the other half of our body into full service and equal status as colaborers in the vineyard of the Lord and full partners in His church —— as He intended our fellow saints should be. Past injustice cannot be undone; what we've forfeited may never be gained. Left unattended the present situation will only grow more intolerable. We can insure a better future by casting the plank of male superiority from our eye and allowing every believer to participate fully ---based on their God-given gifts rather than their God-given gender. Anything less will only accrue to our shame —- and to the disappointment of the One who saves us all.
We are guilty of a sort of benign sexism when we refer to men as deacons and women as servants. God didn't interpret "diakonon" as servant rather than deaconess in Romans 16:1 --- a committee of men did.
In His dealings with people Jesus practiced the art of inclusion (children, Gentiles, Samaritans, the poor, the rich, the crippled, and, yes, even women) while His disciples, due to their prejudices, protested in dismay. We need to apply this craft today.
Each congregation's elders have been entrusted by God with members of various special talents. As in the parable of Jesus one congregation may have ten people of extraordinary ability while another has five or even only one. As overseers our responsibility is to invest the efforts of these people wisely. Should we hesitate to do so out of fear of failing to live up to some arbitrary, self-imposed restrictions, or is more expected of us than that? What shall we say to our Lord when He returns?
"We knew you were a hard God with many rules about who may work for you and we didn't think we should use all the human capital that you gave us. See, here are the women ---we buried them in tedious details while you were away so that they could not interfere with the work of your church."
Will we then be called wicked servants and cast out due to our poor stewardship of the treasures we were given to invest in the Lord's work?
How much better it will be to hear Him say,"Well done, good shepherds; you have been faithful with the flock you were given: they have grown in both spirit and number. Come and share in your master's happiness."
Some of us may not be completely convinced of the propriety of female deacons until Jesus offers to allay our doubts face to face. But if we will someday have to explain what turns out to be an error in judgment, I would much prefer to explain why I chose to include rather than exclude. I hope and pray that my fellow elders would prefer this also.
Dear fellow elders,
Too often we get so caught up in what the Bible says that we fail to ascertain what it means. I think this is what happens when many of us consider the role of women in the church. Just as we are mystified and amazed at the way that the majority of the Jews of Jesus' day failed to recognize Him as the Messiah, so too, years from now, will others be to our blindness concerning women.
As elders we are called to guide just one congregation in one place at one time. We must make Scripture relevant to the society we want to impact without regard for what others are doing elsewhere. It is not our job to judge women, but we are to interpret God's Word. In doing so, tradition and past practice should not be allowed to impede our efforts to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
Our view of society must be subject to our Scriptural outlook. We must not allow our prejudices and other cultural baggage to blind us to the truth: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."(Gal. 3:28) And we must act accordingly.
Following the example of Christ, we must bring the other half of our body into full service and equal status as colaborers in the vineyard of the Lord and full partners in His church —— as He intended our fellow saints should be. Past injustice cannot be undone; what we've forfeited may never be gained. Left unattended the present situation will only grow more intolerable. We can insure a better future by casting the plank of male superiority from our eye and allowing every believer to participate fully ---based on their God-given gifts rather than their God-given gender. Anything less will only accrue to our shame —- and to the disappointment of the One who saves us all.
We are guilty of a sort of benign sexism when we refer to men as deacons and women as servants. God didn't interpret "diakonon" as servant rather than deaconess in Romans 16:1 --- a committee of men did.
In His dealings with people Jesus practiced the art of inclusion (children, Gentiles, Samaritans, the poor, the rich, the crippled, and, yes, even women) while His disciples, due to their prejudices, protested in dismay. We need to apply this craft today.
Each congregation's elders have been entrusted by God with members of various special talents. As in the parable of Jesus one congregation may have ten people of extraordinary ability while another has five or even only one. As overseers our responsibility is to invest the efforts of these people wisely. Should we hesitate to do so out of fear of failing to live up to some arbitrary, self-imposed restrictions, or is more expected of us than that? What shall we say to our Lord when He returns?
"We knew you were a hard God with many rules about who may work for you and we didn't think we should use all the human capital that you gave us. See, here are the women ---we buried them in tedious details while you were away so that they could not interfere with the work of your church."
Will we then be called wicked servants and cast out due to our poor stewardship of the treasures we were given to invest in the Lord's work?
How much better it will be to hear Him say,"Well done, good shepherds; you have been faithful with the flock you were given: they have grown in both spirit and number. Come and share in your master's happiness."
Some of us may not be completely convinced of the propriety of female deacons until Jesus offers to allay our doubts face to face. But if we will someday have to explain what turns out to be an error in judgment, I would much prefer to explain why I chose to include rather than exclude. I hope and pray that my fellow elders would prefer this also.
# posted by kef1000 @ 11:58 AM 
